INSTANT SURVIVAL TIP: The Mega-Prepping Option

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Do you know how much toothpaste your family uses in a month? How about toilet paper, laundry soap, and peanut butter? All of these items, and hundreds more, are consumed each year and should be part of your prepping. However, a lot of busy moms find themselves getting distracted when using the slow-and-steady approach to prepping. If this describes you, mega-prepping may be the answer. Here’s how it works.

Begin tracking how much of an item your family uses in a month. Watch for sales and coupons for that item, and when you see it at a good price, buy enough to last twelve months. It’s a good feeling to know that you don’t have to give shampoo, for example, another thought because you have twenty-five bottles stashed away in a bin labeled, “Shampoo”. Likewise for paper plates, cotton swabs, and coffee. Once you have one item fully stocked, go on to the next.

The beauty of this system is that your attention and money are focused on stocking up on one single thing at a time, and that you can also use it just for a few items instead of everything. This works particularly well for staples, such as wheat and sugar, and non-edibles, which are often on sale.

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Comments

Different people learn in different ways, and different approaches work for different people.
I do a little of each of these prepp methods. I buy some things in dribbs and drabs, and some things I buy in one fell swoop, and get it over with.
Grains, when bought in bulk, are cheap. 25lb. bags of grain can be as low as $7, where buying it in 2lb. bags can be $2 each or more!
Make sure you repackage bulk items into smaller, usable portions.
Make sure you mark the date purchased on each item! (some recommended 'use by' or expiration dates are just silly, arbitrarily chosen dates by the company's MARKETING dept.)
Make sure you rotate! When you use one, buy one. New one goes at the back of the stack no matter how hurried you are.

DON'T forget to keep in mind that different people may need different brands / flavors.

My kids wouldn't touch my husbands minty-flavored toothpaste if you paid them, and he's not ever going to use their vanilla cake flavored toothpaste voluntarily. We have four different flavors stockpiled, plus some spares to barter or give to other family members who might join us.

I have sorta gone by this approach. The first thing I did was to stockpile food, water, and emergency cooking and lighting supplies, as if we'd be out of electricity for a couple of weeks.. When I had about a year's worth of food, I then moved on to toiletries. I've always kept at least a month's supply on hand anyway, just because I'm deathly afraid of running out of toilet paper, but I expanded it out to a six months' supply. Then I worked on cleaning supplies. Then on first aid items. Then on sewing supplies and stationary items and things like extra socks, underwear, sheets, and towels, etc. As we take things out of the designated boxes, we write them on a shopping list and I replace them, always rotating so that the oldest expiration dates on perishable items go out first. It takes some time to stockpile this way, but it helps me focus better. I've accumulated a lot of good stuff this way and I feel better knowing that my family will be okay for six months, at least.

I have been doing this very thing for quite a while now. In our town, I write an article called "Money Saving Mama" that tells people how to stock up. The cheapest way that I stock up is by going to Rite Aid, CVS & Walgreens and buying things that are on sale, I have a coupon and I get a register reward. The next time something like this is on sale & I have a coupon & I get a RR, I buy it and keep the chain going. I haven't paid for toothpaste, toothbrushes, shower gel, shampoo & razors in a couple of years. I can't even tell you how much shower gel I have, but we will be clean for a long, long time. Today I used a coupon that went with a big sale and got 2 6 pack Olay soaps for free. This is the easiest and best way to stock up and have what you need because you never know when prices will rise and you will need to use your stash. The most important thing I have always told people is to be like a grocery store-rotate your stock. Check the expiration dates and rotate them as you bring them home to make sure nothing runs out of date.

I have to say I just this passed weekend made myself sit down and do a list of al items needed and the amount, I had started this but then got side tracked! Now I know what I need and how much. It also gives me an idea of how much storage space I will need. I have all things in categories like ; canned goods, staples or spice and so on. Then I know at a glance what I have or need. Not for everyone bu it helps me stay organized and on task with purchases. Now that I have some supply on hand I also try to buy most important first to complete the required amount.

The most awesome book out there is Jan jackson's 100-day Pantry. It is almost all canned goods. I tried each recipe out, if we liked it, I put it on Set 1 until i have 5 meals we liked. I set up a spread sheet and purchased quanities at our local Aldi's which is low cost canned cooks (Rainbow now has a section of low price canned goods, also). I purchased 24 of each thing (24 cans of chicken soup for example). When my first set of 5 was done I had 120 meals. I then worked on set 2 of 5 meals 24x now I have 240 days of meals, set 3 of 5 meals 24x gives me 360 days of meals. No guess work that I am going to have everything I need to make a meal. AND they are GOOD! I started with 5 gal buckets of floor and sugar etc. this is much more organized.

Don't forget to purchase enough so that you always have a month or year storage in rotation (or 10+ years for well-packed dry goods), plus enough so that you have time to purchase more before you start using up your main storage items. As an example, if you routinely store 3 cases of canned meats, store 4, and purchase and rotate before the extra case is used up. In doing this, you always have enough to last for a long time in the event of an extreme emergency in which you have to shelter in place. I purchase enough long-term dry goods so that I can feed 10 people for a year, or one person for 10 years or 2 people for 5 years, always keeping extra in the pantry. Think Short Term Occasional Use, or Long Term Intensive Use for you storage. Short term is what you keep in the pantry for normal use, and long term intensive use is calculated as enough to feed a person one or more servings per day of each item. In a long-term survival situation, having enough to eat will be one of the few motivatiors to keep your family going. You also want to purchase or store some of your dry goods in #10 or smaller cans, for trade. And don't forget the candy and other sweets.

once I had my years stockpile of everything I thought I would need to hunker down, I went to this approach. If I hit on a good clearance, sale, or coupon, I buy as much as feesable. That is…taking need and experation dates into account. I hit a clearance on hair color. With coupons I had it was free so I bought all they had. The s may hit the fan but my dayghters and I will never go gray unless we want to. I also have a large stash of paper plates because the store used it as a bait item at holiday time. I also buy holiday stuff after the holiday at half price. You may not think candy is important but when your kids are cranks they won’t care if it’s 8 month old holloween candy you pulled from your stash……still well within shelf life btw.